Trouble is brewing for the Narendra Modi government as the Telangana government report sent to the Centre has reaffirmed that the deceased student, who committed suicide at Hyderabad Central University, was a dalit and the case comes under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
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The release said Union Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani spoke to the mother of Rohith Vemula, the 26-year-old Ph. The agitating students had yesterday outrightly rejected the withdrawal of suspension against the four research scholars, terming the HCU decision as an “illegitimate circular”.
Rohit Vemula was found hanging from the ceiling of a room in the New Research Scholars’ Hostel late on Sunday.
The HRD ministry has also chalked out a series of measures to address issues faced by the students from disadvantaged social, economic and educational background in higher educational institutions to prevent such unfortunate incidents in future. The four suspended students also continued their sit-in at “veligonda” (Dalit ghetto), a small makeshift tent, where they had been protesting since early this month to protest their suspension by the university authorities over an alleged clash with a leader of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
All Vice-Chancellors and senior administrators would be sensitised to reach out to socially, economically and educationally disadvantaged students.
Cyberabad police haS named Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, Telangana BJP MLC Ramachandra Rao and two students in the FIR filed in the suicide case.
“Such a baseless and misleading statement coming from the Minister of HRD amounts to bringing down the morale of the Dalits holding administrative positions in this university as well as other universities”, it said.
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The decision by the college administration comes amid back-to-back visits by politicians, who have been going to Hyderabad to express solidarity with Vemula’s friends and family.
